Tag Archives: anticipation

A glass full of Chocolate Milk. Warm Maple Syrup. Buttery Homemade Pancakes. These are three things that describe the flavors I had anticipated for weeks. My son’s birthday had finally arrived and we were going to celebrate it at our favorite breakfast joint. That’s right, my taste buds were so enthralled that I began salivating just thinking about it as we pulled out of our driveway and headed into town.

The moment came and I reached for my fork…
Bite #1: AWESOME.
Bite #2: YUM…need I say more?
Bite #4: Still, really good.
Bite #10: Wow, I can’t believe I’ve only eaten ¼ of this enormous short stack! Need to add more syrup.
Bite #15: *Sigh* Perhaps I am getting full. But wait, I dreamed about this meal for days—I owe this to myself to keep eating.
Bite #21: Why…why did I do this to myself? I am so stuffed that all I want to do is go home and go to bed.

Take a look at those series of bites. That first bite—wow—kind of hard to beat! Even at bite #4 it still tasted really good. But do you notice that by bite #10 I wasn’t even thinking about how good it tasted? In fact, I was already in the mindset of persevering to finish it.

As kids we were taught to always clean our plate. This meant forcing ourselves to finish even though it didn’t bring peace or satisfaction. So if bite #14 doesn’t taste as good as bite #1, don’t feel obligated to finish your meal. Yes, wasting food is not ideal, but managing your weight is more important. Plus, the more you learn which bite the food looses it’s charm, you’ll learn to adjust your portion size accordingly.

Those first few bites are simply hard to beat. So why not savor them and leave the rest? Utilize the calories you consume by making sure they get the appreciation they deserve.